Next Up: Google Stores? The Search Giant Is Scouting for Retail Space in New York

With its own growing roster of gadgets, it may only be a matter of time before Google follows in Apple’s footsteps by opening its own retail stores.

Crain’s New York Business is reporting that Google is close to signing a lease for 8,000 square feet at 131 Greene St. in Manhattan’s trendy SoHo district, down the block from Apple’s own SoHo location.

Ascot Properties NYC lists 131 Greene St. in its online property portfolio. Lucky Bhalla, president of Ascot, told The Wall Street Journal in a brief phone interview Wednesday that the Crain’s report is “absolutely false.” A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

Google has been shopping for space in SoHo for some time, said Faith Hope Consolo, chairwoman of the retail group at New York’s Douglas Elliman Real Estate. “They’ve been talking to everybody,” Consolo said. Last fall, she said a Google scout investigated a different retail space on Greene Street that she was representing.